Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Shoulder Pain: What Causes It and Ways to Relieve It

Cindy: Nobody wants their everyday activities to be limited because of pain, but shoulder pain can do just that if it goes untreated. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group joins us now to talk more about shoulder pain and, my gosh, this is my life right here, shoulder pain, constant. What causes this, and is it degenerative?

Dr. Rudy Gari: Well, that’s one of the types of shoulder pain, is degenerative. Other types are traumatic. Example, my son, he thinks he’s Superman, and he was working out at the gym, and he hyper-extended his arms, and he dislocated his shoulder. We actually took him to one of the best surgeons in the country, who said, “Well, maybe he needs surgery.” He had a little bit of a tear there. Instead of having surgery, we actually brought him back to our facility and put in some stem cells into his shoulder, and he’s young enough, it actually allows it to regenerate that tear.

Cindy: So, even a tear can be fixed without surgery. That’s the first I’ve heard of that.

Dr. Rudy Gari: We’ve actually seen MRI evidence, before and after. And because stem cells regenerate tissue, we’ve seen the little mice with an ear growing out of his back, okay? That’s regenerated tissue. That’s the future of medicine, and so we’re doing a lot of treatments for joint pains through stem cells, allografts, what’s called now, regenerative medicine.

Cindy: That’s great because I know somebody who recently had shoulder surgery, and the recovery is worse than what he was going through before the shoulder surgery. It’s a long time.

Dr. Rudy Gari: It’s a big operation. Some patients need it, but it really is a big operation. It’s a very long…months, it can be, through recovery period.

Cindy: Definitely. Now let’s talk about arthritis. We think of it as being in our knees, and maybe in our hands, but can we get it in our shoulders?

Dr. Rudy Gari: We get arthritis in every joint, not only in our knees, and shoulders. We actually see a lot of arthritis in your back. Your back has 31 different bones. Each one of those bones is mounted together through these little joints, and they’re called facet joints. You get inflammation in any of the joints, shoulders, neck, anywhere, and that can cause pain, but the good thing is that it can be treated. We have to go after the source. It’s usually some sort of inflammatory process, like in the back, for example. You have pain in the back from inflammation, and once we make that diagnosis, there’s a procedure that’s called radio frequency, actually burns these tiny little nerves that cause pain from those joints. We can do it down the back, in the hip joints, knee joints, just different places.

Cindy: So, for people who are living with chronic arthritis, this could be the relief that they’re looking for?

Dr. Rudy Gari: Absolutely, and we help a lot of people with that.

Cindy: Okay, so should anybody come that’s got shoulder pain, and they think that it’s going to take more than just…like, they’ve gone for the massage and it’s not working, so they come to you? So what do you do then?

Dr. Rudy Gari: The first thing that we’re going to do, Cindy, is make a diagnosis. So, we’re going to take a good history, examination, probably send this patient for an MRI, find out whether it is a tear, arthritis, something else going on, because you have to make a diagnosis first, before you can actually go with a treatment.

Cindy: Right, and your goal is to try to find a way to treat that without having to go through the surgery?

Dr. Rudy Gari: Surgery should be the last option on everybody. Sometimes, you need it.

Cindy: Right.

Dr. Rudy Gari: But, you know, once you get it, it’s a long recovery process, so we want to do everything possible to avoid that.

Cindy: Good stuff. All right, Dr. Gari, thank you very much. You can visit their website, to schedule your same-day appointment, or give them a call right now, 844-KICK-PAIN. Dr. Rudy Gari, great to see you.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rodolfo Gari, MD

Rodolfo Gari, M.D., MBA, founded Physician Partners of America in 2013 after practicing medicine and seeking a healthcare system that benefits both patients and doctors. He practiced as both an anesthesiologist and pain management physician in Tampa before founding his own pain management practice, Tampa Pain Relief Center. In 1999, he built his own surgery center to practice interventional main management in a way that benefited both physicians and their patients. He went on to found Surgery Partners, Tampa Pain Relief Center and Anesthesiology Professional Services, a group of medical practices with multiple offices throughout Florida. After selling the business, Dr. Gari created Texas Pain Relief Group, the first affiliate of Physician partners of America. The company has grown from a single clinic to nearly 30, and from three employees to more than 500.

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